Archive for the ‘Kernel’ Category

Long time not talking about fglrx rpm, mostly because they’ve got no update since last December 2015.

Short Summary

In a word as hundred, fglrx is now a dead horse!

We had the hope of getting it working for Leap 42.2 in October, but except freezing kernel and xorg, you will not get what you would expect: a stable xorg session

Say goodbye fglrx!, repeat after me, goodbye fglrx.

If you are locked down and forced for any reasons to use fglrx with your gpu, and are still using 42.1, then don’t upgrade to 42.2, without a plan B

It has no more support from AMD upstream, and that’s it!, if someone want to break its computer, it’s still possible to pick the last files and try it by yourself, but the repository will never contain it for 42.2 (see below how-to)

That’s said, I’m not still sure, to keep for a long time the repository, I’ve been managing since 6 years now.

A bit of history

In 2010, when we were working hard to get 11.1 out, the news that no supported ATI (at that time) will be available for end-users, as we have for nvidia gpu

I didn’t check back the irc log, but we were a few, that would like to have this still available, by pure commodity. Especially that I’ve just exchanged a non working gpu by my new hd5750.

I remember the first chaotic steps, how to build that, and create repeating builds, what about the license? Did we have the right to offer a pre-build rpm etc. I spent some time fixing all of this stuff.
And start the build on real hardware. Hey afterward kvm was really in infancy stage.

Release after release amd/ati and openSUSE, the driver was build, on hardware for each supported distribution. When beginning of 2013 Sebastian Siebert, who got some direct contacts with AMD, release
his own script, we collaborate to have the possibility to build on virtual machines, which allow me to simplify the build process, as having on kvm for each openSUSE release supported.

Afterward, AMD start to split fglrx with the fglrx for HD5xx and above, and fglrx-legacy. So 2 drivers to maintain, but as always with proprietary software, the legacy version became rapidly obsolete,
and non usable. Not that bad, in the meantime the AMD effort on the free and open source radeon driver, quickly overcome the performance of legacy.

Still from 2013, to 2016 I’ve been able to propose ready to use rpm for several version of openSUSE’s distributions. I think the repository serve quite well end users, and I never got big flames.

I can’t avoid to mention the openSUSE powered server and sponsored by Ioda-Net Sàrl that has serve this objective so well during that time frame.

Future of the repository

Now that fglrx is becoming obsolete, I think seriously about why the repository online should stay online.

At openSUSE project level, we still have 13.1, 13.2, 42.1 and 42.2 that are mostly active. 13.1 is already almost out of the game of evergreen,
13.2 will follow soon, and I don’t know yet the exact plan for 42.1, but it will certainly go out of maintenance in less than a year.

If you feel or have the need of the repository, please express that in the comments below.

Wait there’s amd-gpu-pro, no?

Yeap there’s a closed driver, called amd-gpu-pro, available, for newer cards. But there’s two things that bring me out of the game, first I don’t have those newer gpu,
and don’t have the need to replace my hd5750 for the moment. The second and certainly the most important, those drivers are only available for Ubuntu or at least in .deb format.

I will certainly not help proprietary crap, if I don’t have a solid base to work with, and a bit of help from their side. I wish good luck to those who want to try those drivers,
I’ve got a look inside, and got a blame face.

For crazy, and those who don’t love their computer

So you want to loose your time? you can! I’ve kept in raw-src directory all the script used to build the driver.
They differ a bit compared to Sebastian Siebert last version in the sense of making Leap 422 as a possible target.
If you dig a bit around, you should be able to build them, but you’re alone on that way, you’ve been warned!

I’m not against a republished version, if someone find a way to make them working, just drop me a message.

Warnings

If you are satisfied with the open-source radeon drivers,don’t risk to break your computer !

Still there will NEVER be a fglrx driver for recent kernel and xorg. So if one of those component change in Leap fglrx will be broken.

Actual situation

Since last december, AMD doesn’t published any update about fglrx so the version is still the 15.12.302 published. A few days ago our beloved Leap release manager Ludwig ask me by email, if there will be an available drivers for Leap 42.2.

Today, after hacking a bit the last Sebastian Siebert’s script I’ve been able to build the drivers for Leap 42.2 RC1, and the driver install fine, and xorg start on my HD5750 (but that’s all what I can tell).

Future

AMD has stopped any development for FGLRX, so it is already considered obsolete. But on the other side they make a lot of effort to bring radeon and amdgpu (the free and open source driver) to a decent performance level.

I don’t have that much usage anymore of my AMD gpu powered computer, and my HD5750 is now 8 years old already, so I can’t promise to be able to follow up with changes.

Cleanup

I removed all the obsoletes packages letting only the last one for each openSUSE version still available. Also the server has no more copy of openSUSE github artwork. If this missing to someone, don’t hesitate to ask.

AMD has released the new AMD Catalyst 15.12 (Radeon Crimson Edition). My script replaces the existing packaging script with an updated packaging script. It supports up to Kernel 4.5. (Official support up to Kernel 3.19)

Important note: The driver does not work on openSUSE Tumbleweed. Unfortunately, the version of X-server is too new for the driver.

SHA1 is obsolete by now. The script used SHA256 for integrity of the downloaded files.

AMD has released the new AMD Catalyst 15.11 (Radeon Crimson Edition). My script replaces the existing packaging script with an updated packaging script. It supports up to Kernel 4.4. (Official support up to Kernel 3.19)

I have adapted the AMD driver to the Kernel 4.4 (rc3). For the moment it works for Kernel 4.4-rc3. Unfortunately the AMD driver has a compatibility issue in combination with the GNOME Desktopmanager and X-Server. As a workaround, I recommend for GNOME another Desktopmanager such as lightdm until the issue is hopefully fixed.

Since the last few months, we all know that the new openSUSE Leap 42.1 is on its road.

But fglrx drivers were missing. Even with the 15.9 release in September.

Warnings

There’s really no warranties the drivers will work, for you!

If you are satisfied with the open-source radeon drivers, don’t risk to break your computer

All the trouble present in 15.9 will be there, like the failing gnome3 gdm start, see previous article from Sebastian, his scripts also available on the raw-src directory on the mirror, allow you to apply a quirk patch.

I’m considering the release of thoses rpms as experimental, they work for some, and sometimes are convenient. But they can also create kernel segfault on some configurations.
If you are in trouble start your openSUSE in rescue mode with nomodeset on boot line, and then zypper rm fglrx related packages, reboot and you should safely return to free radeon.

Story

Today, while packing my stuff for the SUSECON15 in Amsterdam, I was pleased on irc to have feedback of users
who were able to run fglrx Tumbleweed packages on their Leap 42.1

I’ve then start a Leap vm and hack a bit Sebastian Siebert’s script for 15.9 to add support for Leap.
The drivers build, and install correctly. I’ve also updated the one-click installer for people using this
technology.

Leap being available only for x86_64 bit plateform, the driver follow the same available arch.

AMD has released the new AMD Catalyst 15.9. My script replaces the existing packaging script with an updated packaging script. It supports up to Kernel 4.2. (Official support up to Kernel 3.19)

Important note: The first beta version of openSUSE Leap (future openSUSE 42.1) was released a few days ago. However, the AMD driver has not been adapted yet to the new upcoming openSUSE version. In the next days I will working on this and release a new update for this script.

Important note 2: After some experimentation with the GNOME Desktopmanager, unfortunately it does not work with the driver. Because actually something seems to be amiss. To this end, I will contact the AMD developers. As a workaround, I recommend for GNOME another Desktopmanager such as lightdm until the issue is fixed.

Resolved Issues:

[425910] Driver installation sometimes fails on Ubuntu 14.04.3

[424450] Company of Heroes® 2 – Game crashes while running the performance test

[424794] Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor – Corruption observed in game

AMD has released the new AMD Catalyst 15.7. My script replaces the existing packaging script with an updated packaging script. It supports up to Kernel 4.1. (Official support up to Kernel 3.19)

Important note: This driver supports also X-Server 1.17 on Tumbleweed. GNOME Desktopmanager (gdm) is working partially, so you need a workaround. Who has activated the automatic user login in GNOME and want to make a user change, they get a black screen on TTY-console and the login manager seems to be crashed. This issue can be solved when the automatic user login is disabled in GNOME.

For GNOME user with gdm: Execute the following command as root after the installation of the AMD driver and before restart the machine:sh makerpm-amd-15.7.sh --install-gdm-fix

AMD has released the new AMD Catalyst 15.5. Unfortunately AMD has forgot to update the packaging script. The new feature (SLED 12) is currently broken by the original AMD Catalyst 15.5. My script corrects this mainly issue with an updated packaging script. It included the Kernel patches for 4.0 and 4.1.

Warning: This driver based on an old development fork and does not support X-Server 1.17 on Tumbleweed. GNOME Desktopmanager (gdm) is also broken for the moment. My suggestion for you, stay on the latest AMD Catalyst 15.3 Beta.

New Features:

Support for SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop 12

Resolved Issues:

[417630]: Fixes the issue of discrete GPU not being powered off in Power-Saving mode on some PowerXpress AMD GPU + AMD APU platforms

AMD has released the new AMD Catalyst 15.3 Beta. They have not yet released a public beta driver for all other distributions. It is currently available for Ubuntu. *sigh* So, it is a bit hard work to implement this in the makerpm-amd-script to replace the latest AMD Catalyst 14.12 with AMD Catalyst 15.3 Beta. So do not confused if the script downloads the AMD Catalyst 14.12. 🙂

Unfortunately there is no release notes from AMD. This update can solve the issue with PowerXpress but I can not really verified this because lack of such hardware.

Another side note I have implemented a workaround in the script to get the driver works with the GNOME Displaymanager + GNOME. It is a little cruel hack but it works for the moment. Thanks to the user that they posted the article in my blog. 😉

For GNOME user with gdm: Execute the following command as root after the installation of the AMD driver and before restart the machine:sh makerpm-amd-15.3-beta.sh --install-gdm-fix
If you update the AMD driver, so the workaround does not work anymore. It is important that you do not delete the file /amd_xversion and is needed for the workaround.

To revert the changes:sh makerpm-amd-15.3-beta.sh --uninstall-gdm-fix

Before I forget it: All user from openSUSE Tumbleweed can also install the driver. But remember, Tumbleweed is under heavy development. I can not guarantee that the driver works in the future yet.